1. Observe: Identify the single “north star” metric that best measures user growth

To know if your efforts are actually working, you need to have ONE metric that tracks how well you’re growing. For example, YouTube’s north star metric is Total Watch Time (the total time users spend watching videos).

Your north star needs to deliver value to your users, not just to you. Analyze user behavior to understand what core value you provide. EventNotes recommends →

Growth levers are the components driving user growth — when you pull them, they move your north star metric. Identify the acquisition, onboarding, engagement and retention levers that have the highest impact on your north star metric.

Adapt Google’s growth model to your company. For example, if your north star metric is Daily Active Users, then you might break it down into growth levers like this:

3. Experiment: Choose a growth lever you want to move, then run multiple split test experiments to determine the best ways to move that lever and drive growth.

The two primary ways to move your growth levers are sales & marketing, as well as by optimizing the product itself. Say you have a landing page that drives users to your platform — first split test 3 different CTAs, then test 3 headlines, then 3 graphics…test, test, and keep testing until you find the combination that yields the most growth.

4. Encourage users to act on a growth lever by displaying it as a multi-step process and giving them an end goal to hit

Whether it’s buying, onboarding, or mastering the product, make a step-by-step process and show users where they are in the journey. The closer people get to a goal, the more motivated they are to reach it.

Google increased the number of advertisers running 3+ ads by more than 20% with this simple visual display →

Monitor visitors in real time to track their progress and see where you need to boost motivation. EventNotes recommends →